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Thats what decided me on retiring a few years ago.... (I was 65). I just couldnt get good staff, I was offering a proper PAYE, with paid hols, pension and everything ..... but I couldnt get anyone reliable who worked well .... and would turn out throughout the winter.
Good luck.
A factor in my issue was the two colleges that did horticulture etc were over an hour away (one to the North, the other to the East.....so 16 year olds tended to go for the courses offered by the local college
Just retired from over 40 years in the trade. It was always a struggle to recruit. With a lack of interest and unrealibility being major problems to those who were recruited despite offering well above average wage rates. Eventually got so pissed off with all the aggravation built up a bank of self employed sub contractors and sacked the directly employed and this worked well but we were primarily commercial not domestic. In my experience employees are an expensive nuisance and you are better off without them !
agreed Peter... I went eventually to one employee, she was with me all the time, we mostly did high end gardens concentrating on border maintenance and charged hogh end prices
I remember back when I was an employee on an estate and we advertised for gardening staff offering above average salary with generous job perks including transport , resettlement allowance , flexible working hours to allow for personal circumstances ,annual bonus .
We got one applicant who could only work on a Sunday afternoon .
Mind boggling , again the subcontractor route worked .
When I became self employed , employees were not even a consideration , I learned the subcontractors had problems retaining staff .
Personally I suspect many join a gardening business to gain experience before starting out on their own .
Perhaps find a way of offering incentives to retain reliable and efficient team members .
My mate had a joinery business and had over Twenty employees , eventually he went back to working solo , he told me it was due to stress from staff problems .
I reckon it's across the board in many industries .
i am retierd now but had problems recuting decent staff, from been late or just not turning up one lad had worked for mitie for a coupple of years but he did not have a clue and did not look after the tools he went on his own after working with me, then one day he brought me his mower because it would not start it turned out he had put diesel in the tank, so i told him to take it to the mower shop hopfully it taught him a lesson about looking after his tools as the repair would come out of his own money
i found older people were more reliable
Try adverting on the largest landscaping group. Patios and Drives landscaping group on Facebook
I pay well and look after my staff and maybe have been lucky to retain them. Clearly though the pool of available labour has reduced considerably since Brexit.
You hit the nail on the head, Nobody wants to work!!!
Everyone now wants to sit behind a desk 9-5 never get a sweat on and be highly paid.
Maybe we should all be charging more so we can pay more and look more attractive to staff. The government pushed all the kids towards IT which in turn has left manual jobs short staffed I'm pretty sure everyone will be in the same boat unless your willing to take on the idiots no-one else wants.
I think the labour uk market is far more complicated than blaming brexit or saying people don't want to work.
British working poeple regardless of ethnicity have been betrayed for 30 years by the elites for cheap labour to gain maximum corporate and housing profits. No reflection on peoples business and how they treat there own staff. Speaking from my own long ago employed experience and what my children and there peers have gone though the is no loyalty for the British people there is to much competition for low paid jobs that employers expect experience for. Even with a very good degree the kids are applying for 200 jobs and are not getting replied too. Companies threat there employees appallingly regardless of there clams. Why would workers care they are demotivated, few will buy there own homes or have financial freedom.
Regarding brexit, the eastern Europeans just when home during covid times they made there money and for the ones that have stayed they have to suck it up like the rest of us.
Have you considered a different approach to employing.
Why not offer a 5yr training contract incorporating qualifications leading to self employment teach them everything so they can make real money. May be they don't have the bottle and remain your employees if they do they could be your guided loyal subbies.
Either way it will add skill value and higher profits to Our industry via price fixing.
Hope sells
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